How to protect mandarin from catepillars?

[balaji27]

Hello Team,

I noticed this bug on my Mandarin plant, there were 3 and I removed them. What are they and how to protect my plant? I sprayed EcoOil, not sure this will help. Please advise.

Thanks 

Balaji.

 

 

[Jason]

Definitely a caterpillar @balaji27. Have you noticed that they are eating the leaves of your plant? Hopefully manual removal does the trick. 

Let me tag the ever-helpful @Noelle to see what she might use to keep them at bay.

The guide How to plan, grow and care for a mandarin tree should also be a helpful resource for you.

Jason

[Noelle]

Hi @balaji27 

Not sure what the caterpillar may turn into after it matures into an adult, but it is obviously causing damage to your mandarin tree!

My suggestion would be a pyrethrum-based insecticidal spray. Pyrethrum is a natural product that is not systemic and not harmful to humans or pets when used as directed. To be effective, it must be applied directly to the pest itself (as a 'contact' poison) or to the leaves of the plant it is eating where it will ingest the insecticide.

There are several brands of pyrethrum available

[MitchellMc]

Hi @balaji27,

Looks like you've already received some excellent advice.

I just wanted to point out that those are some exceptionally large thorns for what I presume is a grafted mandarin. The growth you're showing in your images could be a sucker that has grown from beneath the graft line at the base of your plant. Suckers need to be pruned off as they are from the grafted root stock and not the plant you should be growing. If you can take a picture of the whole plant and then a closer-up image of just the trunk section, I can provide further advice on whether this is a sucker.

Mitchell